Shadow's taxicab reports: Meet the new front. Same as the old front.

[shadowknows69]

I hesitate to post this one because it is on the fairly drunken words of only one soldier but if any of it is true it has incredible implications, in my opinion, on how little we're really being told about Bush's little war on terror and just how badly it is going for some of our people.

If the "central front" in the war on terror is Iraq. This soldier claims it probably shouldn't be. He claimed Afghanistan is much more dangerous for our troops than Iraq. That in Iraq we have six bases and in Afghanistan only two.

I haven't been keeping up on how many we supposedly have deployed there but IIRC it wasn't as large as the numbers this guy was giving me. He told me that we just made an assault on a Taliban mountain stronghold with, and I imagine there was a good deal of hyperbole in this figure, 50,000 troops. If the number was that large I assume he meant it was US and Afghan troops. I didn't think we had 50,000 total in that theatre but he claimed there's at least that many. Most shocking thing of the story was he said we couldn't take the hill.

Another tale I got to hear was how this guy just lost some friends in Afghanistan. Said his friends were part of and escort detail and they hit some mines and IEDs. Said about 6 of 15 survived but then were surrounded by Taliban and finished off. Said they came right out of the hills. It appears the Mujahadeen haven't lost their touch and all the training we gave them. He said we've lost 32 in the last week alone just from our base. I've seen obits for maybe eight but nothing in those numbers so actual losses may be being hidden or at least staggered for PR purposes.

He was actually waiting in the states for his company to get back from Iraq and apparently they're being shipped right to Afghanistan soon after getting back. There's supposed to be 3500 troops coming back next week. They're going to bring them all back in like one day and unleash them on the public. No offense to any of our fighting soldiers but I think there should be some kind of social decompression time. The guys coming back en masse after Desert Storm caused enough havoc. I can't imagine the mindset some of these guys are going to be in.

Anyway, I told this soldier how little we were being told about Afghanistan and operations there. He said it's politics. Overstepping my own lines I asked him didn't he think we had the right to know? He did agree but shook his head and just said "it's politics" again. I still get no sense from any of these soldiers that they're accomplishing anything but killing the perceived enemy and defending themselves although a few still do give me the "we are doing good there" speech and it saddens me but I believe that they are sincere in that belief. I think I would do my best to hold on to that too if I were cast into hell to indulge in hellish deeds. See you on the road. Always tip your cabbie (if they deserve it like I do ;-) )

[donsu]

1. thanks for the report

nt

[wakeme2008]

2. thanks and NOM and note

The Military didn't learn a think from Vietnam... With the two year draftees, by the time they did basic and AIT and a year in Nam they had less than 6 months togo and the military released them the second they got back from Nam. They had the same problems then as now..... IMHO they need a month of "social decompression time" when they get home...

[NJCher]

3. bush's folly

Another tale I got to hear was how this guy just lost some friends in Afghanistan. Said his friends were part of and escort detail and they hit some mines and IEDs. Said about 6 of 15 survived but then were surrounded by Taliban and finished off. ...we've lost 32 in the last week alone just from our base.

If this is true it would be incendiary. People are fed up with this war. There are threads here today telling how 2/3 of Americans want out of this war.

It is unbearable to think of U.S. troops taking a beating like that.

I'm just going to hope like hell this isn't true.




Cher

[Suich]

4. Thanks for the post, Shadow.

Recommended

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. thanks again for this report

from what I'm hearing from military families in Arkansas, they are fed up with the long deployments and then redeployments, especially the Guard units. Arkansas is basically a state made up of small towns and everyone knows about the horrors of war and how little is being done by the government to help the troops, especially with psychological problems.

[shadowknows69]

6. kicking once for night crowd

n/t

[Swamp Rat]

7. k&r

[Cha]

8. Thanks for that well written report

from the road, Shadow..you never know what you're going to hear from the back of a cab.

[shadowknows69]

9. They're rarely "well written" but thank you

I usually just spew them forth on my computer without thought to grammar or syntax but occasionally a coherent thought accidentally gets put down. B-)


P.S. Like an idiot I also never run a spell check until after I've posted it the first time lol.